


A World Away

by SEMellark



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Fluff, M/M, these boys must be protected at all costs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 19:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3084701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SEMellark/pseuds/SEMellark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once their eyes meet, there is no going back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A World Away

**Author's Note:**

> This was a Christmas present for one of my friends. We're both certified eremin garbage.

They meet at an airport.

They’re both seventeen, although they don’t realize until some time later that they were born exactly two months apart.

When their eyes meet across the way, Armin has already made it through security and is retying his shoelaces while his parents wait patiently, talking amongst themselves about how returning to the States for the summer to see their respective families will be a wonderful experience for their son.

Armin grew up in London and has no real memories of the United States, where he was born, though he is quite fond of his maternal grandfather and the stories he tells, so he’s not too depressed about being forced to travel via airplane. He doesn’t trust the flying hunks of metal, though he knows the physics behind them are sound.

The teenager doesn’t necessarily think he’s afraid of the possibility of a crash. It’s the feeling of being confined that Armin has a problem with.

Once he finishes tying his shoes, he glances up, makes a move to stand, but suddenly finds that his limbs have failed him. There’s a boy, standing in line with his family while waiting to be screened, and he’s watching Armin.

That in itself is not strange. Armin has a scar on his face, starting just below his left eye and extending down to the start of his jaw, and he’s had it since he was born. The doctors weren’t really sure how he came to have it, but he was otherwise a healthy child and there was really no cause for concern.

Armin is used to the piteous looks, the gasped questions of _what happened?_ But the boy, the boy with eyes the colour and depth of an ocean, he isn’t looking at Armin as if he’s something to be pitied.

It’s strange, but the expression on his face is almost pained, and it’s enough to make the boy’s mother place a hand on his shoulder and shake him, worry in her eyes as she whispers something in his ear.

The funny thing? Armin feels just as much agony in the pit of his stomach as is reflected in the strange boy’s eyes, and a strangled little noise forces its way up and out of his chest.

There’s no possible way the boy heard him from that distance, but he still reacts almost instantly, shrugging off his mother’s hand and ducking underneath the security rope as if it weren’t a breach in protocol.

Armin doesn’t know how the boy manages it, but he bypasses security completely, and Armin isn’t sure if anyone tries to stop him only because he can’t tear his eyes away from the boy’s face, pinched with desperation and disbelief and hope and _oh Eren –_

He falls to his knees in front of Armin as dozens of voices rise in protest to what just happened and security guards speak loudly into their walkie-talkies, but it’s all white-noise to Armin as strong arms are wrapped around his middle and a face is buried in his stomach.

“ _Sie sind am leben_.” Armin hunches over, staring at the dark crown of Eren’s head as the other teenager sobs in what Armin thinks is German. “ _Gott sei Dank_.”  

“Oh, my word.” Armin’s mum exclaims, and while the blond can see his parents shifting nervously out of his peripheral vision, he opts to ignore them. His head is fit to burst, full of human screams and the roaring of monsters and Mikasa telling him to _run_ – “Armin, who is this boy?”

_Everything,_ Armin thinks, threading his fingers through Eren’s hair to keep him in place as the guards start to close in. He’s confused and disoriented, feels as if he’s been woken from a long sleep, but despite it all, there is no way he’s going to let Eren be ripped from his arms, not again. _He’s everything._

“ _Es tut mir so leid_.” Eren gasps out, lifting his head from Armin’s stomach to stare up at him pleadingly. His eyes are wide and overflowing, and Armin doesn’t think he’s ever seen anything quite as beautiful. _“Sie werden nie wissen, wie leid es mir tut. Oh, Armin, ich habe dich so sehr!”_

It doesn’t matter that he has no idea what Eren is saying. Armin manages a shaky smile that Eren returns without hesitation, reaching up to ghost his fingers over the scar on Armin’s face.

The touch sends a jolt straight to the bottom of Armin’s spine, and he’s transported to someplace out of time where Eren is missing an eye and blood bubbles from his mouth with every breath he takes, but he’s still on his feet, daring anyone and everyone to try and get past him and harm those he holds most dear.

That was the last he ever saw of Eren, Armin realizes despairingly, though it makes no sense to him. Mikasa was the one who came later and told him Eren had died, and they held one another as they mourned their loss, as the Walls collapsed and titans roared and humanity finally lost the war.

Eren sees Armin’s distress and makes a mournful little sound, uncaring as the security guards descend on them. He leans up to kiss Armin’s cheek, lips brushing against his scar – the scar he acquired minutes before he lost sight of Eren for good – and whispers, again and again, “ _Ich liebe dich_.”

Armin laughs, the sound perhaps a little maniacal, and in a distant part of his mind, he wonders what his parents must be thinking, if they’re confused as to where their little boy who despises being touched went. He’s still there, marginally, is slowly being replaced by the young man who wanted everything Eren Jaeger had to offer in a world where they had nothing.

“I love you too, you big idiot.” Armin says just as the first of the guards claps his hand down on Eren’s shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> Please excuse the fact that I don't know German.


End file.
